Whew, a little hassle but its up and running. BMW EL PASO did install. Took awhile for software re load.

on 2009 and likely any E90 series M3 you DO NOT NEED the panel or the $55 dollar brackets. Bracket cost me $33 install cost $220.

The receiver goes where the spare would go if we had one.

The receiver comes from BMW with 1 year subscription and here is the problem. the activation center in India is not fully aware of this. You may be on hold for awhile or my second agent was fully aware and had me uploaded within 10 min. So if they are not aware, hang up and try again until you get someone who knows about this offer. You would think the receiver code would tell them, but apparently it does not.

Ok, I ended up chosing an aftermarket radio, an Onyx, bought online at walmart.com (yes, walmart lol) for $49.95.

I used two brackets from www.proclipusa.com, total cost about $50, and mounted the radio on the console, lower, right hand side. I had an option to renew an old Sirius account laying around, so I used that to pay only $25.00 for six months service.

I wanted to use the Sharkfin, so I installed an extention from the radio to the OEM Sirius antenna plug in the trunk and it works great.

Here is the cable I ordered, 10' SMB Female Ell to SMB male straight, $14.95 with no shipping charge from Amazon: (If you can't find it, search for SBRGT-10.)

Below is a picture of my install in the trunk. As others have said, the FAKRA antenna connector is pink, and in my car (2009 E92, M3) was in a buffer wrap neatly underneath the mounting lug next to the radio module. I literally just pulled out the pink FAKRA connector, and plugged the male end of the exention cable in, and it pressed home. The other female El went straight onto the male ANT jack on the back of my Sirius Onyx OEM radio.

(Picture shows cable unhidden)

Works great. I selected the amber motif on the Onyx, which matches the BMW amber in the instruments almost exactly.

Total cost just about $140 including the 6 month subscription. I'm pretty happy with that.

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Character does count. For too long we have gotten by in a society that says the only thing right is to get by and the only thing wrong is to get caught. Character is doing what's right when nobody is looking... " --J. C. Watts